Giants: D-Line

The Giants have a lot of talent on the DL, between Dexter Lawrence, Leonard Williams, Dalvin Tomlinson, BJ Hill and RJ McIntosh - but last season - they really didn't look like it. This offseason the Giants added Austin Johnson, a former 2nd round pick out of PSU who is very familiar to new DL coach Sean Spencer.

The problem with Bettcher was that he couldn't re-teach the system he had inherited from Todd Bowles in Arizona and absolutely lacked any kind of creativity. You didn't have to be Fritz Shurmur to figure out a giant athlete, like Dexter Lawrence, has to be moved around before the snap to take advantage of surprise and the other team's weak link. Likewise, Leonard Williams should constantly be stunting or swapping spots with Big Sex or Tomlinson. Tomlinson just has to be steady, though he can move, too. As can BJ Hill who slid back last year, and McIntosh, who may make his money as a sub package rush guy, We'll have to find out why Spencer likes Austin Johnson. He flopped with the Titans.

Anyway, it is a very talented group and Patrick Graham and Sean Spencer need to have a better plan for them.

Giants Pick Up 5th Year Options on Engram and Peppers

The Giants are picking up the 5th year options of S Jabrill Peppers and TE Evan Engram. These seemed like no brainers, but given the new coaching staff, who knew if Engram was a long term fit or if Peppers became expendable once they drafter Xavier McKinney.  Though both could still be traded, it looks like the new staff sees their utility.

Knicks Giving Perry One More Year

Leon Rose is keeping GM Scott Perry around for another year. To me this seems lazy, and I hope they don't allow him to do more stupid stuff, like trading KP for garbage. This clearly isn't a vote of confidence for Perry, and Rose is most likely waiting on someone whose under contract for another year. Hopefully, Perry won't be allowed to make the pick.

Giants Claim S Montre Hartage

The Giants have claimed S Montre Hartage off waivers from the Miami Dolphins.  Hartage went to Northwestern and was signed as an Undrafted Free Agent last year. So he's a Graham. That being said, he only played 4 games and registered 7 tackles and a pass defensed.  Not fast, but can tackle and seems to have good instincts and solid techniques. Sure feels like the Giants are over the roster limit now, so we should see a bunch of cuts. I imagine those will be even harder than usual over Zoom.

Write it and it will happen: the Giants just waived TE CJ Conrad, C Tanner Volson, DB Derrick Baity, P Sean Smith and Long Snappers Colin Holba and Drew Scott..

The Giants also signed 10 payers including QB Case Cooks from Nothern Arizona, WR's Derrick Dillon from LSU and Binjamen Victor from LSU, TE Kyle Markway from South Carolina, Tackle Tyler Haycraft from Louisville, DE's Oluwole Betku Jr from Illinois and Niko Lalos for Dartmouth,  as well as, DB's Christian Angulo from Hampton and Malcolm Elmore from Central Methodist.

Coach Graham

When 38 year old Bill Belichick was hired as Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns, he hired his old friend Nick Saban as his Defensive Coordinator. When 38 year old Joe Judge became Head Coach of the Giants, he hired his old friend Patrick Graham.  Both Little Bill and Coach Saban have risen to legendary status, let's see what Coaches Judge and Graham can do.

The case for Graham goes like this: he played DL for Yale. The Ivy League doesn't give out athletic scholarships - so he got in on brain power.  He was a graduate assistant at Wagner, then a position coach (DL, then TE) at Richmond. Then he spent two years assisting Charlie Weis at Notre Dame, before becoming Defensive Line Coach at Toledo.  He quit after one month and joined Belichick in New England. That was clearly a Little Bill and Charlie machination.   He mostly coached LB's and DL's for Belichick  for 6 or 7 years before joining McAdoo's staff with the Giants

After leaving the Giants, he was the Packers Linebackers Coach, where he coached Martinez and Fackrell in 2018. Both players call Graham "the smartest coach I've ever met."

Then, when Belichick assistant Brian Flores got the Dolphins job, he immediately hired Graham as his Defensive Coordinator. They went on to have a down then up season.

When Belichich assistant Joe Judge took over the Giants, he immediately hired Graham away to be his Defensive Coordinator and Assistant Head Coach. That really looked like poaching, but Flores seemed to allow it. Judge, too, refers to Graham as "the smartest coach," he knows.

With the Giants, so far, Graham and the defensive assistants have designed a system that they are currently introducing the team to over Zoom.

The case against Graham is simply this: if he's so smart, why didn't he produce better results in Miami?  Also, who's defense was it? Both Flores and Graham were defensive coaches. Belichick and Saban were able to work out a great D as were Parcells and Belichick. Not Flores and Graham though. It did seem to be improving as the year went on, though.

So, the question is, can he come up with a smart of brilliant D for the Giants? They just got him a bunch of LB's and DB's in Free Agency and the Draft.  And he seems to want to build back to front like Belichick - who does that to force the run and allow his DL's the create 3rd and longs.  We shall see. There's an old saying that the cream always rises to the top.  Rise and shine Coach Graham

Giants: What Now?

The Draft is over and tomorrow the players go back to work on their interface virtual offseason program. Two days of coaching, then no coaching Wednesday, the two more days of coaching.  At the end of the week, the coaches will run a virtual rookie mini-camp we'll see how that works.

The Front Office must keep scouring the waiver wire and must also make 5th year decisions on Pepper and Engram.  They should pick up both options.

Draft Review Pt.4: What - No Wideouts?

It sure felt like the Giants would grab a big wide receiver for Daniel Jones to play catch with.  After all, Gettleman was running pro-personnel when the Giants brought in Plaxico Burress for Eli's second season. They also shored up El's OL by hiring Kareem McKenzie for Eli's year 2, and they made the playoffs.

In this year's draft they seem to have substantially improved the OL for Jones and Barkley, but they did nothing to add another weapon for Jones.  In free agency they added Dion Lewis, and no big receiver so what gives? Were all possible acceptable Giant WR's gone in each window?  Or did a point arrive in the draft where they realized they could do just as well after the draft targeting a few undrafted guys.  They have signed 4 WR's, 2 from Ohio State, 1 from LSU and a 6-8 WR/TE from Canada's Simon Fraser named Rysen John. Not exactly Plax, or Hakeem Nicks, or Victor Cruz or OBJ.  Alas.

Now, there could be a chance to add some other team's cap casualties as cuts take place once the draft picks sign.  Or, there could be someone interesting in the supplemental draft which, given the state of the world, could be bigger than usual this year with next season's NCAA season up in the air.  So there could be a market there to go along with the cut market. Or they could trade for someone else's receiver or look for one after final cuts or at the deadline.

Still, it's odd that they did nothing a wideout rich draft. And what we must hope has not happened is that they've come to believe Tyke Tolbert can fix anyone so they got a couple of 50-50 guys from OSU for nada and the big kid from Canada and they'll expect Tyke to make chicken salad. You might remember the way Ernie and Fassel ceded OL Power to Mouse McNally which lead to Pettigout, Seubert and Diehl, but also Jeff Hatch and  Roehl on the roster as they stopped using picks and started thinking Mouse could never fail.

Let's hope they don't take Tyke to the point of diminishing  returns and do indeed have a plan to add another weapon for Jones. They passed on all of them in the draft.

Draft Review Pt. 3: Do You Like Hard Coaching?

Over the course of the draft. Joe Judge seemed very involved, and the many ringers selected show that he was. That said, there is revisionism going on in the reports of how Judge was more involved than Shurmur had been. The videos from the last two drafts show clearly that Shurmur was involved and particularly that he badgered Gettleman to watch Saquon Barkley's tape.  And clearly, Daniel Jones would not be a Giant without Shurmur's blessing and he knowingly compared Dexter Lawrence to Linval Joseph. So, it's not like he was uninvolved or some sort of draft day dilettante. He wasn't.

The real difference in their relative immersion into their respective draft roles is that Judge has crazy college contacts and Shurmur had been a pro coach much longer. Judge has kept his college contacts fresh throughout his pro career - to wit - he saw Xavier McKinney running around on a visit to Alabama a few years ago and bookmarked him. That the Special Teams coordinator was down visiting the Crimson Tide is more interesting. Was he there for a Pats mission or was he watering his old garden in anticipation of a job like this. Or did he have other questions for Saban.

One of the concepts that was introduced as Judge reflected on the first two picks was their openness to "hard coaching." Tom Coughlin,  Bill Parcells, Bill Belichick, Nick Saban and Vince Lombardi all believe or believed in hard coaching. Coughlin finally won when he melded his humor and decency with his hard coaching. Judge and his staff are already post 42'd and seem to have already melded the lessons Coughlin learned with their coaching personalities.

So, clearly it's erroneous to say that Shurmur was less involved in the drafts, it's accurate to say that Judge is more connected and had the foresight to keep his roots well watered.

Also, Shurmur would have made sure they grabbed a Big WR and a C, having been the Michigan State C in his playing days.

Draft Review Pt. 2: The Back Seven

Patrick Graham must be a happy man.  Over days 2 and 3, the Giants used seven of their nine picks on back seven defenders. There's a classic comedy you might want to watch during lockdown called, "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid," it stars Steve Martin as a private eye named Rigby Reardon. Whenever Rigby would get in a jam, he'd consult his reminders that read, "What would Marlowe do?" Of course, meaning what would Raymond Chandler's classic PI, Philip Marlowe would do. If you haven't read Chandler or seen "The Big Sleep" or "Murder, My Sweet" do that now then come back.

Anyway, the point is, whenever Graham has mission he probably asks, "What would Belichick do?"  At least that's what it has looked like in the draft and free agency. On defense Belichick believes in building back to front.  And, frankly, with the deep and diverse DL the Giants have built, that makes the most sense. So that what that's what the Giants did. They took one safety, one slot corner, one boundary corner, and four linebackers.

Xavier McKinney, whom they took instead of trading down, is being viewed as a steal. McKinney played 4 different positions in Saban's amoebic defense. He is freakishly instinctive,  for a Giant defense that has been short on instincts since since Jesse Armstead hung em up. Not only that bu McKinney was considered the alpha dog for the Crimson Tide and was the MVP of a bowl game.  Also, he's big time leader who gets the DB's lined up correctly.

In free agency. the Giants hired LB Blake Martinez, in part because, like Antonio Pierce, he can get the front seven lined up pre-snap.

Think about this.  For the last two years the Giant defense has looked uncoached, with the exception of the few games Ryan Connelly played before blowing out his ACL.  So, now, not only have they hired a man Blake Martinez called the "smartest coach" he's ever known, but he seems to have a plan.

In the fourth, the Giants took, UCLA CB Darnay Holmes.  Like Joe Morris, Holmes is short at 5'9" but not small at 195.  He's crazy fast, though he only ran a 4.48 at the combine, he's run sub 4.3 in other testing. He's also got good hands and ball skills. They're probably going to make him a slot corner, which he didn't play until he got to the Senior Bowl, but he did finish UCLA in two years, so learning doesn't seem to be one of his issues. Exciting guy to have.

In the sixth, the Giants took, PSU LB Cam Brown. Sean Spencer "Coach Chaos" just came from Penn State so he knows this prospect well, so Cam counts as a ringer (as did Thomas, McKinney and Lemieux through the first 5 rounds). He needs to add weight, but they obviously think he can.

In the seventh, the Giants took two guys from the Minnesota defense. Not sure what the connection is, but edge guy Carter Coughlin is undersized, but fast and crafty and could be a really valuable rotational pass rusher, as well as a demon on specials and possible kick blocker.  They also took surly CB Chris Williamson He's a very physical corner who can get out of control. He's also played slot corner.  That gives the Giants 3 or 4 ways to cover the slot with 3 or 4 different guys depending on who the other team is lining up there. The Giants will try to get him under control, while he amps up the competition with Baker, Beal, Love and Ballentine.

They also took South Carolina semi-guided missile LB TJ Brunson. He's another guy who is over aggressive like Lamar McGriggs used to be, and like with Lamar, they'll have to get him to play under control, but he will, if there is a camp, make it more dangerous.

They also took Georgia LB, Tae Crowder.  Another ringer.

So, with the draft the Giants eschewed big wide receivers and center prospects and loaded up with tough and talented ringers for the OL and back seven of the defense. They added a coach on the field in McKinney, a slot corner, and some physical competition at the CB and LB positions. This was an exercise in team building, not collecting Christmas ornaments or other shiny objects. This was very much what Belichick would do.

Draft Review Pt. 1: The OL

The Giants channeled the spirit of George Young, this weekend, and cluster drafted OL's. Young did that effectively between SB 21 and 25, but sort of lost his fastball (Gragg, Zatchka) thereafter.  This is the first time the Giants have hit OL in 1, 3 and 5 in God knows how many years, but it was great thing to finally see.

In the first, the Giants took OLT Andrew Thomas.  Thomas had been the number one OL prospect all during the NCAA season, then became the victim of flavor or the week rankings after the games had stopped. He's 6'6" or 6'7" and 315 with long arms and a projectable frame that could see him playing at 330 at some point. He's already a great run blocker and a darn good pass protector who will only get better with pro coaching and game experience.

In the third round, the Giants took OT Matt Peart who is also 6'6" or 6'7" and around 318 with slightly longer arms and an equally projectable frame.  He trained with Thomas in Florida before the combine and considers Thomas his brother. They are incredibly similar in body types but not experience.  Thomas was able to start as a Frosh at an SEC powerhouse program, while Peart, who came to football late, was able to start at UConn, which is even what it was when the Giants took Will Beatty. Peart might need a full season to develop, but he's already come really far really fast, so it could be sooner.

Usually when you have two good tackles they're called bookends.  Rarely are they as similar as these two.

Another point, one of the reasons that this tackle class was so good, it that Thomas, Willis and Wirfs were all able to start as freshman for big time football programs - at Georgia, at Alabama and at Iowa.  Ferentz is an OL coaching legend and Wirfs was the first Frosh to start for him. For what it's worth, Peart, who picked up Football in HS. And he came along so quickly, he too, was able start as a Frosh for Division 1 Connecticut. Those kids who could start as Freshmen are what you want to look for with premium picks. You don't want to ignore prospects with different stories later in the draft.

In the fifth, the Giants took Oregon LG Shane Lemieux. Boom. He's a power broker.  It was interesting that they did not take a Center, but Lemieux was shown doing C drills and snapping the ball on his Instagram, so he might compete at C, too. It would be great to have a power guy at C. The Giants haven't had that since pre-injured Brian Williams. So keep your fingers crossed. Like Giant Legend Rich Seubert, Lemieux started his football life as a TE.

After the draft, the Giants signed Rhode Island T/G/C Kyle Murphy. They might use him to back up the middle three positions, while Peart starts out as the swing tackle. They also signed former Louisville RT Tyler Haycroft. He was a walk-on who earned a scholarship, down there, and may also be tried at Center. These are high character players and that will give them chances.  We haven't hit on a UDFA free agent OL since the aforementioned Mr. Seubert.  When Gettleman was running Carolina he found Andrew Norwell in UDFA, so his success has been recent that that of Mara Tech.

Needless to say, we have long called for this kind of a draft and laser focus,  and this weekend we finally got one.  Cluster drafting OL's how necessary it was with a young Franchise QB and Franchise Back.  Huge relief and kudos.

Giants Take LB Tae Crowder

It's over.  The Giants ended it by taking ILB Tae Crowder from Georgia. Seems like another smart payer and a ringer from a Judge Friendly Program. Now, starts the insane pursuit of undrafted  players. The college connected coaches on Judge's staff should really clean up now. Go Giants!

Giants Take CB Chris Williamson

The Giants went back to Minnesota and took full sized CB, 6'1 183  Chris Williamson.  He'll come in and compete with all of the other young corners.  One pick left - the last. God Rest You, John Tuggle.

Giants Take LB TJ Brunson

TJ Brunson is the 6'1" 233 lbs Captain of South Carlolina. Another weird sized LB for a 3-4, and one who will have to earn his keep on specials if he wants to stick  Same size as Jesse Armstead.

Giants Pick Carter Coughlin

Giants got a Coughlin! This one is a slightly undersized EDGE who has been awfully productive at Minnesota.  He's 6'3" 236 and ran a 4.57 and jumped 36 at the combine. Another player known for his smarts. Something like 6 of the 7 chosen so far have distinguished themselves by their football IQ's and classroom work.

Giants Pick PSU LB Cam Brown

In the 6th, the Giants took PSU OLB Cam Brown.  Cam is 6'5 and a lean 233.  Wonder if he can scream off the edge. The Giants obviously know the answer to that and all Brown questions because they hired Sean Spencer away from PSU, so this kid is a ringer!

Giants Pick G Shane Lemieux

Love this. The Giants got another power broker.  Shane played Left Guard at Oregon, but it will be interesting to see if he is being brought in to replace Kevin Zeitler after the 20-21 season or whether they are going to try to covert him to Center.  Just another big strong guy to help Daniel and Saquon.

Giants Take Darnay Holme

In the fourth round the Giants got their slot corner. Hopefully, they've had horrible luck drafting slot corners like Jayron Holsey and Rod Babers.  This kid is super smart and physical but just 5'9",  Second  generation player.

Giants Take RT Matt Peart at 99

Wow.  The Giants took bookends. At 99 the Giants selected  Matt Peart the UConn RT who came from Jamaica. This kid has huge upside and is a natural bender, but only has a few years in the game. The Giants can get a C or WR at 110 tomorrow morning the a C later if they take the WR. But this is how you build around Saquon and Jones.  Get a C and Big WR and here we go!

Giants Take Xavier McKinney at 36

The Giants stayed at 36 and took Alabama Safety Xavier McKinney.  McKinney may be more of a strong safety, but I guess we'll see.  He does nothing for team speed, but he's Saban trained and Belichick and Saban believe in building back to front on D. Another kid from Georgia.  Tackle machine.  We'll see.

Giants on Day 2

Alright the Giants roll into Day 2 with just 2 picks.  36 and 99.  Would be nice if they could find another pick between 36 and 99, but they will improve even if they just make two picks. At 36 I'd love to see them take Lloyd Cushenberry, the long armed smooth moving power broker.  Or, if the Giants prefer, Temple's Matt Hennessy. Hennessy is quick and clever, but not a power broker.  So the Giants could solve C for several years or--

They could grab a pass rusher.  I like Zack Baun because he can play in the base, and they would be able to move his launch points around on passing downs. Yetur Gross-Matos might also be available, and, Coach Chaos should know him well.  Not sure he as versatile as Baun is. Another guy is AJ Epenesa of Iowa.  AJ is a bit of a throw back end as he's 6'5"m and 275 - so not a Tuck or Osi - and not twitchy, He's a power rusher with violent hands, sort of like Frank Clark. Giants might also like Josh Uche. Uche is explosive and undersized at about 6'1" and 245, but he can fly off the edge or up the middle.

They might also want a big receiver, and Denzel Mimms and Tee Martin could still be there at 36,.  But there should also be big receiver's left at 99 or tomorrow at 110,  This is a deep  WR class.  So 36 might not be the time to pull the trigger, but Mimms is a hom run hitter with Cruz-ian body control, so they might just want him at 36.  USC's Michael Pittman and Notre Dame's Chase Claypool are also big options

The Giants should get at least 2 more important pieces today and one of them should be a C.

Giants Stay Put and Take Andrew Thomas

The Giants took OT Andrew Thomas, who was obviously their number one of the group of 4 top ranked tackles. Thomas comes from Georgia where, his coach Kirby Smart was on the Saban Tree with Judge. I ended up liking all 4 of these tackles, because  all of them can run block. But Thomas can also pass block with the longest arms in the class, and, along with Becton, played LT this past season. Wills and Wirfs are just expected to be able to, and are outstanding athletes. This shows a commitment to building around Jones and Saquon. Which they must do

Giants Tonight

The Draft finally starts tonight.  Still not a fan of the elongated draft, but getting the data flowing two days earlier in the week has some advantage, and thank the football gods for not delaying this.  The Giants job tonight is clear: take their favorite OT either at 4 or after a slight trade down. One of the reasons that the Giants OL has been garbage for years and years is that OT's have become more and more scarce, and teams are finding the David Diehl's a lot earlier these days - and guys like Rich Seubert are being found a lot earlier. Probably because of the growth of the internet and the ease with which guys can circulate tape through it. So, the Giants can no longer build their line like their last successful one. They have to be aggressive about, and this year, they have to cluster draft, because they haven't since the 80s. Last year it was corners, this year it has to be OL's. If they do anything other than taking an OL with their first pick, they still haven't figured things out and they will stay in OL hell.

Knicks Hiring Cleveland Capologist

The Knicks are hiring long time Cleveland exec Brock Aller.  Aller has been with Cav's owner Dan Gilbert for about 10 years, trouble shooting Gilbert's various companies, before settling in with the Cleveland Cap. He's supposed to be a wiz.  His title is as yet unknown, but it's not bad to have a good cap guy.

Judge Can Finally Coach

In surreal time, and under what have always been insane NFL rules, we've finally come to the day where the New Coaches can finally coach their players. Most have them have been with the Giants since January or early February. This will be remote coaching, and the players already got their playbook on April 6th,  It will probably start with a full team meeting giving way to offense and defense and finally positions. It's unclear, how long they're allowed to Skype or Zoom, but at least this staff of teachers can finally start teaching, You have to wonder whether or not interface with Coach Chaos might make Leonard Williams want to sign.  

This Week on the Blog

Lockdown is stressful, but, at least, this week we have the NFL Draft.  Thank heavens. We are starting to hear other sports might start playing in empty stadia and arenas - that will be more surrealism, but let's have it. Let's take a look at this week.

Yankees: Sheltered in place.

Giants: The Giants have their first draft of the Joe Judge Era and a lot of us probably suspect the last draft of the Dave Gettleman Era. Let's be clear: they have to fix the OL and here's how.

First Round: Wills, Wirfs, Becton or Thomas whomever they favor. Just as the Giants OL was going to hell, the Cowboys along with the Colts and Browns, started drafting Giant Type OL's instead of more Flozell's. Hopefully Garrett and Columbo have returned with our old recipe.

Second Round: Especially if we have an extra pick or and extra early 3rd pick, the Giants need to take one of these 6 players: Cesar Ruiz, Lloyd Cushenberry, Matt Hennessy, Tyler Bladasz. Nick Harris or Keith Ismael.  Ruiz and Cushenberry could be gone by 36, but if we have the extra pick we can probably move around after 36 or trade down from 36 to get Hennessy, whom I think they like.  We'll see.

By Day 3 the Giants have to have already addressed OT and C.  With other picks, they should grab a big WR, a  Safety, a linebacker, a running back and a slot corner.  The Giants have 10 picks as of now and can gain more with a trade down or two or a trade of roster players. Which might happen as the new staff has had time to take a deep dive into the roster and how the players might or might not fit the new schemes.

Rangers: Sheltered in place.

Knicks: Sheltered in place.

So there it is, the fun starts Thursday.  I hope you can find some fun before then.  Stay Safe.

Giant Draft Thoughts Pt. 1

When the Giants did not sign a starting type tackle in free agency, it had to be because they liked someone who they could get in the draft even better. Cam Fleming has been no teams idea of a starter since he's been in the league. He's a good back up T/G, and if a rookie does need time, he might be able to buy them some, but he's not a starter and they didn't sign one. They did sign two LB's that Graham had coached before, so, it does look like the Giants are stronger at LB than we know them to be at OL.

Thus, if the Giants do, once again, kick the OL down the road, and take Simmons for his versatility, then they can't get their top rated OT, what's more, it would mean they can't pick their top or second C at pick 36, because they'd have to pick an OT there.  But if they take their top OT at 4, they can still get their top or second C at 36. Hopefully, they can trade down a couple of spots and grab their tackle, then pick a big WR from this deep class with their extra pick.

By the way, there are at least 4 teams that aren't too far behind them who could trade up for a QB, even in one has already traded up to 3. Also, Carolina might trade up for Simmons.

So, taking Simmons at 4 precludes them from getting their top OT and possibly their top C.  They screwed up the second half of Eli's career by never finding adequate replacements for Snee, Diehl, Suebert, McKenzie and O'Hara. They can't do that to Jones.

Giants Sign Dravon Askew-Henry

The Giants have signed ex-XFLer Dravon Askew-Henry.  At 5'11" and 187 he's an undersized Safety who played a lot at WVU, then went undrafted before signing with the Steelers.  He was a final cut before signing  with  the now defunct New York Guardians. He had a good first game - which I watched and can no doubt help on Specials if he does make the team.

This Week on the Blog

Alright. The Surreality continues.  But thank God, the NFL is making do. So in less than 2 weeks we will have 3 days of an NFL Draft and some relative normalcy. More on that in a bit.  Let's take a look at the teams. Let's take a look at the rest.

Yankees: The Yanks still have some guys in Tampa, while the rest of the team distance trains from wherever they are in the world. The Yanks will have this buttoned up whenever its finally time to play.  Have not liked any of the MLB ideas for restarting so far.  Shoot for a 154 game season with lots of double headers.  Expand rosters to add arms.

Giants: The Giants are being diligent about interviewing the top prospects and one would presume all sorts of other players. The Giants remain sort of undressed because their drafting from 2010 through 2018 was horrific and one of the great players they took blew his hand apart, and the other was a total nut job, who could have been a superstar receiver. So Gettleman and Shurmur inherited close to nothing, and Jones at least has inherited a franchise QB and franchise RB, but some other good young talent to scheme around. That said, if they don't fix the OL with real Giant Type OL's - meaning Suebert Snee, Diehl, Kareem, Roberts, Jumbo, Pettigout type guys - and not reach for guys like Flowers anymore - they've got a great chance to get it done in the draft and they have to start with their first pick - hopefully after a trade down.

Btw, Fox is re-running SB 42 at 3pm EST.

Rangers: The Rangers haven't signed anyone else. They still could. It's odd that they haven't signed Morgan Barron out of Cornell. Barron is big and has really good hands for a big guy,  The NHL doesn't seem to have any good plans. We'll see.

Knicks: The Knicks sort of patented the kind of futility of purpose that afflicted the Giants post SB 46, but the Knicks have been doing it since the 70's!  Or if you want to be generous, but ringless, you could count the Ewing Era as reasonably well managed. The Rose plans that have leaked out don't seem to be feasible. Let's see what happens. The NBA doesn't seem to have a good plan to re-open, either  Stern would have.

Alright, so there we are. Locked down and waiting for Super Bowl 42 and the NFL Draft to start. Stay safe. This too, will pass.

This Week on the Blog

Alright. Hope you're all well and hanging in there.  We're one week closer to the NFL Draft than we were. And unless something breaks with HCL, that could be our next sporting event of any kind.  So let's take a look at our teams.

Yankees: The Yanks have scattered but all are working out.

Giants: The Giants have been the most normal during the lockdown, because aside from going to pro days, and hosting 30 visits, the Giants are doing what they'd normally do in getting ready for the draft. On Monday, the offseason training program should start in some form and the new coaches are finally allowed to start coaching the players.

The Giants took and interesting tack in Free Agency, while most thought they'd sign 2 or 3 big names, they didn't sign any. They got starting corner, but everyone else is more or less a role player until they show us they are not.  Most of the signings had special teams value and have strengthened the Giants margins.

During the Shurmur era, the Giants lost a lot of games on the margins. The 1990 Giants won a Super Bowl with great specials and on the margins. They also had the best Giants coaching staff since the says of Landry and Lombardi. Let's hope the focus on the margins we're seeing now augers for similar greatness from Judge and how staff.
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Rangers: the Rangers signed NCAA FA Justin Richards this week after he finished his career at Minnesota-Duluth, which is an excellent program.  Richards, a solid 5'11" 190,  is a C who can play the wings, and seems to have have decent hands. He has won recognition for his defensive acumen and the Rangers could use more of that.

Knicks: Leon Rose is apparently interested in hiring Philly GM Elton Brand. It's unknown how Rose might pry Brand away from Philly, but this is obviously bad news for Scott Perry. We'll see what happens.

Stay safe everyone!